Little Light Series
Year founded: 2020
No. of employees: One
Top executive: Sterling Freeman, CEO and founder
Phone: 916-572-6404
Website: littlelightseries.com
Twitter: @littlelightser1
Instagram: @littlelightseries
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/littlelightseries/
Sterling Freeman wants to energize, enlighten and empower kids.
That’s the slogan of his Greensboro business, Little Light Series. With his business, Freeman authors and illustrates his own series of children’s book; operates an online arts education program called Little Dreamers Character Art; and visits local schools.
In May of 2022, Freeman won Launch Greensboro’s spring 2022 Demo Day, taking home a guaranteed spot in 2023’s Capital Connects, an annual pitch competition.
Now, Freeman is looking to fundraise, hire and create an app next year to help scale Little Light Series.
Little Light Series began with Freeman’s first book, "Goodnight, Little Dreamer," published in January 2020. His second book, "Wake Up, Little Dreamer," came out in November 2021. Freeman is working on a third book, to be published in 2023, in which the little dreamer will attend his first day of school.
“All of my books are focused on life education, with messages that are put into metaphors that kids can easily digest,” he said. “They also give a little more meat to the story so that kids can have conversations with their parents and speak more on the subjects.”
The Little Dreamer books are sold online, mainly through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target and Walmart. Freeman said he also sells books when he does local school visits and book signings.
The main part of his revenue – about 80% of the approximately $87,000 he’s made to date – has been through the Little Dreamers Character Art classes.
In these classes, Freeman teaches basic art to children, typically ages 4 to 8, using numbers, letters and shapes.
“They’re able to shorten their learning curve with skills such as penmanship, fine motor skills, the alphabet and numbers,” Freeman said.
On average, Freeman teaches about 10 45-minute live classes per day, six days a week with a maximum of 10 children in each class. His classes are currently offered through the online homeschooling organization Outschool. So far, Freeman has reached a community of about 2,700 children from 25 different countries and his classes average a 46% re-enrollment rate.
The classes were a result of an adaptation Freeman made during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, when he was struggling to bring his message to children through school visits and book signings.
“I had to have another avenue to communicate [my mission] to children, and online was the best option,” he said. “I figured out a curriculum and lesson plan through art, which is something very comfortable for kids to digest.”
And now Freeman needs to adapt again, as the Little Dreamers Character Art classes have gained so many students.
To meet the high demand, Freeman’s goal in creating a Little Light Series app is to have children be able to interact at any time and take pre-recorded Little Dreamers Character Art classes.
Freeman told TBJ he is currently looking for people to invest in his business, which will allow him to launch an app by fall of 2023 and hire.
Q&A with Sterling Freeman
Was expanding into art classes a natural step from being an author and illustrator? How has that helped your mission of empowering kids?
I’ve always been an artistic person, but, being an artist, I want to create conversations with my work that bring light to current issues and have conversations about solutions. My focus has always been to help people achieve their fullest potential. In an age where we deal with mental and emotional health, I wanted to dive into some of those solutions and I believe it starts at our foundation. As a solution, I wanted to create something that kids can interact with in their foundational years to help build brighter futures.
Although my focus of my business model is centered around kids, this is really for everyone. The potential for people to live to their fullest starts at the foundation. I plan to expand on that as well as I start to create things for all stages and all ages.
Do you expect to keep Little Light Series in the Triad?
I don’t currently have any plans [to move]. I’ve just started to get grounded and interact with the community with Little Light Series. I plan to have the time to get rooted and give what Little Light Series has to my community. I’ll always look to expand as far as business, but my home is North Carolina. Guilford County is going to be my priority.
How are you handling your business’s growth?
Time management is key. With such a busy schedule, you have to leave room to where you’re not totally reactive but adaptive. For me, in my off-time, I ground myself in creativity, such as painting, music, songwriting. There is potential for burnout, so I look to be mindful of grounding myself in the why of what I’m doing so I can always have the same energy and stamina to keep going.
